Global positioning devices are great tools to help us get where we need to go—and people put a lot of trust in them. You follow along until the GPS tells you to “turn left in 500 feet,” but it isn’t the right road! You decide to ignore the GPS and look for a familiar road, and the device recalculates the route.
Over the past few weeks, the Gospel readings have followed the disciples in a similar situation. Until Passover, they’d been traveling with Jesus and spreading his message, and they thought they’d keep doing just that. But things changed—drastically! So, they decided to just go back to fishing—something they knew well—to help them get their bearings.
We often do the same thing when things seem crazy; we go back to what feels comfortable to give us time to think or to get used to our new reality. It’s like a moment when the GPS says, “Take next exit on right” and you see that familiar landmark ahead: it’s just enough to relax you.
As often happens to us, the disciples see something they don’t expect—for them it was someone on shore with a small fire. He tells them to try fishing on the other side of the boat, and, for some reason, they listen. When they recognize him as Jesus, everything begins to make sense, but it’s a new reality. As you get to the exit, you see a new shopping center. Everything else is there, too, and now it all makes sense.
It is now up to the apostles, and us, to spread the good news which Jesus has entrusted to us. As the apostles share breakfast with him, their new path becomes clearer, and they know they don’t have to travel it alone. Christ, the true guide, will walk the path with them, just as he will walk with us.
How has God guided me in my life even when I thought another way was better?
Adapted from Word on the Go, a downloadable resource from RENEW International.
Painting by Kristin Serafini.